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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 145 records · Page 8
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2021

Power sector investment implications of climate impacts on renewable resources in Latin America and the Caribbean

Climate change mitigation will require substantial investments in renewables. In addition, climate change will affect future renewable supply and hence, power sector investment requirements. We study the implications of climate impacts on renewables for power sector investments under deep decarbonization using a global integrated assessment model. We focus on Latin American and Caribbean, an under-studied region but of great interest due to its strong role in international climate mitigation and vulnerability to climate change. We find that accounting for climate impacts on renewables results in significant additional investments ($12–114 billion by 2100 across Latin American countries) for a region with weak financial infrastructure. We also demonstrate that accounting for climate impacts only on hydropower—a primary focus of previous studies—significantly underestimates cumulative investments, particularly in scenarios with high intermittent renewable deployment. Our study underscores the importance of comprehensive analyses of climate impacts on renewables for improved energy planning.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2026

Northwest Colorado Local Energy Analysis: October 2025 Results

The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Communities Local Energy Action Program (Communities LEAP) provided customized technical assistance to the Northwest Colorado region to assist in developing strategies that facilitate long-term economic benefits through locally driven energy planning and development. The region sought technical assistance to model alternatives energy projects in response to the expected retirement of coal-fired powers plant and associated coal mines by 2030. Northwest Colorado faces a potential economic gap due to the loss of tax revenue, labor income, and jobs within the region due to the impending closure of the Craig and Hayden Power Stations and related mining operations at Trapper and Colowyo mines.

08 HYDROGEN↗
DOE OSTI2024

Quantifying Socioeconomic Impacts of Electricity Generating Technologies

The levelized cost of energy (LCOE) and other cost metrics used in energy planning do not account for out-of-market impacts of the technology choice. While a decision-maker at the utility or asset owner level may compare multiple forms of electricity generating technology using LCOE, a decision-maker over energy policy or community stakeholders may be interested in considering impacts beyond those that LCOE measures. This report quantifies economic impacts such as jobs and wage growth across electricity generation technologies then develops an approach to systematically compare socioeconomic metrics across technology choices. To address additional workforce related impacts, this report also compares the typical workforce education requirements and annual income levels for multiple types of electricity generating facilities. The grid scale electricity generating technologies analyzed in this report produce power using conventional hydroelectric dams, coal, natural gas, nuclear reactors, solar PV, land-based wind turbines, geothermal heat, and woody biomass combustion. Although it doesn’t generate electricity itself, the economic impacts associated with battery storage equipment manufacturing and installation were also analyzed.

03 NATURAL GAS↗
DOE OSTI2026

Lahaina Energy Partnership Community Workshop: Technical Assistance Task Updates and Discussion [Slides]

The Lahaina Energy Partnership (LEP) is an initiative funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to support energy planning and rebuilding efforts in Hawaii's historic town of Lahaina on Maui as the community recovers from a devastating fire on August 8, 2023, with technical assistance provided by NLR. This presentation provides an update on NLR's technical assistance efforts for May 2026.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

The Los Angeles 100% Renewable Energy Study (LA100) [Slides]

This presentation provides an overview of The Los Angeles 100% Renewable Energy Study (LA100). LA100 offers unprecedented scale, scope, and detail for energy planning. But next analyses will be even more complex as we further integrate modeling. High-performance computing - at the scale of a national laboratory - is essential to provide robust insights. The study findings help identify characteristics of new technologies to meet market demand as more cities and states adopt 100% clean energy targets.

100% renewable↗
DOE OSTI2021

Electrification of Pakistan's Transport System: Modeling Electric Vehicle Penetration and Energy Supply Chain Impacts

Initial analysis of the National Electric Vehicle Policy (NEVP) of Pakistan was undertaken by an integrated energy planning team from November 2019 through August 2020. This technical reference document seeks to present the background, inputs and assumptions, methodology, and results of the policy analysis in detail. The intended audience is the technical modeler, analyst, or reviewer who seeks to understand specifically the modeling effort within this initial analytical phase, with the end-goal of interpreting, re-producing, or modifying the simulations or extending the models to conduct follow-on studies subsequently. These studies may examine in greater detail the energy sector, impacts to emissions, charging station infrastructure needs, and overall benefits-cost trade of the policy, among other areas of interest.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2026

Estimating Return on Investment for Energy Technical Assistance Programs

The U.S. Department of Energy's Office of State and Community Energy Programs engaged the National Laboratory of the Rockies to assess the return on investment (ROI) of technical assistance (TA) programs that support state, local, and Tribal energy planning. Although TA delivers value through capacity building, stakeholder engagement, and knowledge transfer, these benefits are often intangible and challenging to monetize. This study reviews existing ROI frameworks and synthesizes the most relevant elements into a hybrid approach tailored to energy TA programs. The proposed framework integrates monetary and non-monetary outcomes through early logic model development, baseline data collection, and the use of proxies for intangible benefits. As a case study, this paper applies this approach to the Communities Local Energy Action Program (Communities LEAP), demonstrating how ROI can inform program design, data strategy, and performance assessment. Findings underscore that ROI should be applied selectively and planned from the outset to ensure data alignment and attribution accuracy. The framework offers TA practitioners a structured approach that can be leveraged for future programs to evaluate and communicate the multifaceted value of TA investments.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2025

Manufacturing Cost Analysis for PEM Electrolyzers and Perspectives for Future Cost Reduction

Electrolyzer capital costs strongly influence the total levelized cost of hydrogen production and have implications for hydrogen deployment. Current electrolyzer costs are high, and large cost reductions may be needed to achieve competitive hydrogen costs and targets. Understanding pathways for cost reduction via R&D and deployment is a critical research area for informed energy planning and enabling hydrogen use. This work presents bottom-up cost estimates of polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) electrolyzer systems tied to design specifications and discusses perspectives for cost reduction opportunities based on ongoing research. We use a detailed manufacturing and process model for a 1 MW PEM electrolyzer stack and balance of plant (BOP) for rigorous cost estimation. This allows for robust estimates of component and manufacturing costs and examination of key cost contributors. Stack costs are dominated by material costs such as iridium and platinum catalysts, especially at high manufacturing rates; power electronics and hydrogen purification equipment are the largest contributors to BOP cost. At higher manufacturing rates, better equipment utilization could reduce stack costs significantly, and we estimate that experience and bulk purchasing will allow for cost reductions to some BOP components. Still, many well-established BOP technologies and stack material costs are less likely to see significant cost reductions at high manufacturing rates. As such, manufacturing scale is limited in how much it can reduce electrolyzer costs, and additional advances for cost reduction may be needed to achieve cost targets. It will likely take many combined strategies to achieve significant cost reductions for electrolyzers and enable low-cost hydrogen production. We can use our manufacturing cost model to quantify potential cost reductions from the considerations described above and demonstrate pathways to lower cost electrolyzers. This allows for better understanding of cost reduction strategies and enables more informed research, development, and deployment for electrolyzers.

cost↗
DOE OSTI2023

REopt: Energy Decision Analysis

The REopt techno-economic decision support platform is used by researchers to optimize energy systems for buildings, campuses, communities, microgrids, and more. REopt recommends the optimal mix of renewable energy, conventional generation, and energy storage technologies to meet cost savings, resilience, emissions reductions, and energy performance goals.

battery↗
DOE OSTI2023

System Advisor Model (SAM) and PVWatts

The System Advisor Model (SAM) is a free techno-economic software model that facilitates decision-making for people in the renewable energy industry. PVWatts estimates the energy production of grid-connected photovoltaic energy systems throughout the world. It allows homeowners, small building owners, installers, and manufacturers to easily develop estimates of the performance of potential photovoltaic installations.

energy planning↗
DOE OSTI2020

2020 State of the Science Report, Chapter 11: Marine Spatial Planning and Marine Renewable Energy

Marine spatial planning (MSP) is advocated internationally as an improved approach to managing marine activities that addresses competing sectors and balances environmental, social, and economic interests. The benefits of MSP are cited as being increased transparency and certainty for industry, improved environmental protection, reduced sectoral conflicts, and providing opportunities for synergies. Approaches to implementation of MSP vary by country and sometimes within countries. As a relatively new and novel approach to managing marine activities, it can be difficult to determine when success has occurred or what might constitute more effective and efficient management systems. The growth of marine renewable energy (MRE) will result in the increasing use of sea space and potential for conflict with existing marine uses, both of which can be addressed, in part, through implementation of MSP. https://tethys.pnnl.gov/publications/state-of-the-science-2020-chapter-11-marine-spatial-planning

16 TIDAL AND WAVE POWER↗
DOE OSTI2021

ARIES: Advanced Research on Integrated Energy Systems Research Plan

The Advanced Research on Integrated Energy Systems (ARIES) platform is one of the most powerful research environments anywhere for addressing the speed and scale of change on power systems. This research plan details ARIES capabilities, current and upcoming, and how they relate to objectives for advanced energy systems.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2026

Strategic Planning for Energy-Resilient Communities

Distributed energy resources (DERs) offer flexibility and community benefits in both blue- and black-sky conditions. Outside of a power disruption, they can provide significant cost savings and reduce grid stress during times of high demand. During a disruption to the central grid, these technologies can meet critical energy needs through the use of battery storage. However, communities must consider many planning and design dimensions and tradeoffs to integrate energy systems that meet financial and resilience goals. This presentation, given at the 2026 State Energy Conference of North Carolina, defines resilience in an energy context, discusses strategies and best practices for planning resilient energy systems and sites, including resilience hubs and microgrids, highlights NLR tools and capabilities for helping communities in this space, and features successful case studies in North Carolina related to energy resilience.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
NASA NTRS2009

Battery and Fuel Cell Development for NASA's Constellation Missions

NASA's return to the moon will require advanced battery, fuel cell and regenerative fuel cell energy storage systems. This paper will provide an overview of the planned energy storage systems for the Orion Spacecraft and the Aries rockets that will be used in the return journey to the Moon. Technology development goals and approaches to provide batteries and fuel cells for the Altair Lunar Lander, the new space suit under development for extravehicular activities (EY A) on the Lunar surface, and the Lunar Surface Systems operations will also be discussed.

Manzo, Michelle A.↗
NASA NTRS2009

Battery and Fuel Cell Development for NASA's Exploration Missions

NASA's return to the moon will require advanced battery, fuel cell and regenerative fuel cell energy storage systems. This paper will provide an overview of the planned energy storage systems for the Orion Spacecraft and the Aries rockets that will be used in the return journey to the Moon. Technology development goals and approaches to provide batteries and fuel cells for the Altair Lunar Lander, the new space suit under development for extravehicular activities (EVA) on the Lunar surface, and the Lunar Surface Systems operations will also be discussed.

Manzo, Michelle A.↗
DOE OSTI2023

A Guide for Creating a Building-Level Action Plan to Improve Energy Efficiency and Reduce Carbon Emissions

Action plans are tools for commercial building owners to create pathways for reducing energy use and decarbonize, hence reducing carbon emissions. This template and associated direction manual provides a method for creating an action plan. Originally created for the Better Buildings Low Carbon Pilot, it can also be applied to the Better Buildings Climate Challenge and for any building owner striving towards lower carbon footprints.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2024

When energy doesn’t add up: use of an energyshed framework in assessing progress towards renewable energy transitions

Global progress in energy transitions to support climate mitigation goals has been slower than anticipated; this has prompted shifts away from traditional paradigms of regulated energy ownership towards a model of energy democratization by local communities and individuals. For example, in the United States, local communities in over 250 cities, counties, and states have made pledges to reach 100% renewable electrification by target dates ranging from 2020 to 2050. However, the availability of infrastructure and the competition for renewable energy resources, as well as lack of awareness of these limitations, present significant barriers to overcome. In this study, we explored a subset of 31 of these cities to assess their current electricity generation and how much further they have to go to meet their goals. Through an energyshed framework, we estimated powerplant electricity allocation to each city assuming competition for power from various renewable and non-renewable resource types, as well as look at the ‘best case scenario’ assuming 100% allocation of renewable-sourced electricity for a handful of cities in order to understand the existing and planned energy mixes for 2021 and the following 20 years. It is likely most cities will meet 10% of their energy demand with renewable energy, with best cases scenarios reaching between 35% and 65% renewable penetration, within the next 20–30 years. This highlights the need for infrastructural development in the energy sector, as well as intentional planning efforts in order to make these energy goals a reality.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗